Dare Be Podcast

In this episode I talk to Chuck de Liedekerke, an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in London turned entrepreneur in regenerative agriculture . I enjoyed learning about regenerative agriculture, how it is a solution to climate change and the difference with organic agriculture.  I also really enjoyed listening to his story. From the evening when he walked into his boss' office to quit to now as CEO of a business with 28 people... A LOT has happened. I was struck by his self-awareness and humility. There are important learnings for all of us. I hope you enjoy it!

Bruce Daisley is the author of the Sunday Times best seller The Joy of Work, host of the number 1 business podcast eat sleep work repeat, a workplace culture expert and an award-winning speaker. He used to be the most senior employee at Twitter outside NA. He worked at Google where he ran YouTube in the UK. I wanted to talk to him because I like the work he does and his takes on workplace culture and also because I was interested in his journey from media and Big Tech to what he does now.  I hope you enjoy my conversation with Bruce where he shares insights into what makes a high-enjoyment and high-performance work culture. You will also hear about his transition, writing a book and launching a podcast while having a high-profile role in a fast-paced organisation like Twitter.

Listen to the story of Andrew MacAskill, a LinkedIn Top Voice. He is also part of LinkedIn's Changemaker Programme set up to help make work a better place. Andrew is also the founder of Executive Career Jump, a career coaching company with the mission of ending career-based misery. In the past two years, he's worked with over 500 people to help them find jobs that are more aligned with who they are.  Andrew's mission is complementary to what I do: as a career coach I help people clarify what they want to do, Andrew helps on the critical step of helping people get the job they want.  We first talk about the state of the workplace, the role LinkedIn is playing in this and then we dive into his story. You will learn about what it feels like to lose one’s job, about what it takes to become an influencer, about starting a passion project as a side hustle and making it your main income, about leveraging LinkedIn when you are job-hunting or recruiting.

An emotional conversation with Emilie about her passion for food, about her childhood memories cooking with her grandmother and about her challenging and successful journey to pursue it.  Emilie changed her career from being in Finance in Paris to working in the food industry. She's now the pastry Executive Chef in a luxury gastronomy brand in Germany.  She explains how her love for food was transmitted as an heritage from her grandparents in her family house in the South of France. She also explains what makes a perfect pain au chocolat.  And of course she tells the story of her transition. She shares what she called her revelation that she got while attending a class at the famous Ducasse school.   How she quit her job to become a pastry teacher herself, the difficulties she had to overcome and the years it took to clarify how she could do what she really wanted to do in food and in pastry.

In this deep, open and rich conversation, Deri Hughes shares how he learnt to take conscious decisions instead of being led by unconscious drivers. He shares some practical tools and techniques. This has deep implications for our careers and our lives.  Deri Hughes has had a rich and diverse career with a focus on strategic consulting. He graduated from Oxford University with a first class degree in organic chemistry. He even went all the way to doing a PhD there. He then started his career at Bain, founded a short-lived company and continued with a few free-lance consulting roles. He then moved on to become the CFO and COO in a strategic consultancy. After this he founded his two companies HoneyComb PS and Explore Consulting where he helps leaders of consulting firms to recruit, train, and develop their teams.  A few months ago he wrote a post on LinkedIn where he very openly talked about his personal difficulties and how he has been working through them. This was a beautiful example of daring to be, daring to show up, with his strengths and vulnerabilities.

Caroline Dewast works in the humanitarian sector, working in crisis situations, conflict zones and natural disasters. Caroline is currently working from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for the UN Refugee Agency. Before this, she worked for the Norwegian Refugee Council and for the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. For her humanitarian work she's lived in the Philippines, Gaza, Peru and Fiji and she's worked in Greece, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Cameroon, Myanmar and Bangladesh. I invited Caroline not only because she has followed her purpose with great courage and passion but also because before doing this, she had started her career in London as an architect. She's got a lot to say about what it takes to follow your purpose and about making a career change.

Andreia Mitrea is an edupreneur. She is the Founder and CEO of Colina Learning Centre, a new type of school that blends together child education and adult development. To finally implement her vision of education, it’s been a long and winded journey. She started what looked like a high-power, successful career at Coca Cola. There she wondered why she was the only one to not care about her job. She left to become a stewardess. She then joined her sister’s brand new private school in Romania. Over the course of 10 years they made it a very successful venture, in particular growing enrollment from 6 pupils to 600. She had to leave and she took a break. She clarified her purpose, her vision for education and confronted her fears of failure and not being good enough to found Colina Learning Centre.

Listen to the enthralling story of Curtis Blanc, or Tis. From failed music beginnings, to drug-dealing, to nearing death several times, to prison, to award-winning radio-presenter, to sought-after public speaker, to 50£-a-day sound engineer, to successful music entrepreneur, to spoken-word artist, Tis has seen and learnt a lot. He is now on a mission to help youth and music artists to grow their self-awareness and self-love and succeed. Tis comes from an under-privileged background in West London. School had no interest for him until he found music. With music he got distinctions for the first time in his life. He enjoyed creating electronic music and setting up sound systems. American and British rappers made him believe that success was within easy reach. He started his music business with passion… and some naivety about what it would take to “make it”. Instead, he was focused on avoiding the lack of money he suffered from in his childhood by dealing drug. As he participated in gang life, consumed drugs and played video games, music took the back seat. Until he got caught by the police with high quantities of class-A drugs and cash. He pleaded guilty and got sentenced to 4 years in prison. Tis says his low point in life was dealing drugs, rather than prison where he was finally free from his gang and from drugs. That’s when he started writing a very different story for his life. Listen to his incredible story here. or on your usual podcast player or read the key learnings below. Bonus! Listen Tis’ beautiful poem at the very end of the episode. You can find Tis on Twitter at @tisrespect.

What a discussion with the lively, witty, laughing and authentic Kenza Barrada. She shares lessons on knowing when to say: “I’m done.” and when you are aligned. She shares how she crafted her professional life based on her evolving personal needs. She explains how she first found meaning in her tasks and then sought deeper meaning in the service to others. This is also the story of staying whole by integrating all the different parts we are made of. And finally she explains how meditation and gratitude made her journey an even more beautiful one. Kenza Barrada is the Founder and CEO of the WAOW Project, a leadership and team development consultancy. She is also the co-Founder of @it Razala, a permaculture and eco-agriculture project south of Marrakesh in Morocco where she grows a sustainable and edible forest with her husband and children. She is a passionate and expert problem solver! Before this Kenza worked in Morocco, France and across Africa, South America and even Asia in strategic consulting mostly for McKinsey. She started her career in the Consumer Goods Industry.

Greg talks to Gareth Fryer, the co-Founder and co-CEO of Fika, the up-and-coming mental fitness app and start-up. Gareth’ burn-out led him to quit his job as a partner in a consultancy and give up an earn-out. He learnt to manage stress and anxiety by building emotional literacy. He followed his purpose by building a startup that focuses on solving the root-causes of mental health issues. While growing a family and his young startup, he fought back stage 3C Melanoma cancer.